FREDERICKSUPPORTSKUFOOTBALLCOACHALLEN

Some posters on the Internet have begun collecting names for Kansas University football coach Terry Allen's replacement.

But KU athletics director Bob Frederick said that position won't be vacant anytime soon.

"That's not on the radar screen," Frederick said. "He absolutely has my total support."

Frederick is big on continuity. For evidence, he points to Allen's six-year contract.

"We gave Terry a six-year contract initially because we thought that he was going to have little chance to recruit that first year," Frederick said. "Normally those contracts are running in the five-year range."

Though Frederick was disappointed with KU's demoralizing losses the past two weeks, he still thinks Allen has the Jayhawks pointed in the right direction.

"Nine days ago, nobody said we were going in the wrong direction," Frederick said. "If we can win Saturday and get back on the right track, we'll be all right. I feel good about last year's recruiting class, all of whom we're red-shirting, and I know we're in good shape on a lot of young people for next year's class."

Allen has heard the criticisms.

"Criticism is something you realize you should get and you deserve it," he said. "But you can't have any self-pity and wallow in your muck. You go out and help the kids, because they're the ones who really suffer. This is our jobs, but this is their deal. It's really not good to get booed off the field at halftime. Did we deserve it? Yeah. But do we want it to happen again? No.

"You want them to be successful. That hurts more than the criticism.

"But I'm glad it hurts," Allen continued. "If it didn't hurt, if we laughed and giggled about it, then you know you're used to it, and we're not used to it."

Allen's assistants have come under fire, too.

"Everybody's looking for something," Allen said. "It's people trying to come up with a reason or an excuse. If they don't want to direct it at me, if they don't want to direct it at the players, who are you going to direct it at?"

Some of the criticism leveled at the aides has to do with their small-college backgrounds. Frederick took up for the assistants, too.

"If you look in the media guide, everybody except Bill (Salmon) has major-college experience," Frederick said. "We know because we looked into that in the hiring process."

For what it's worth, Allen actually has a better record through 26 games than some nearby peers. Allen is 10-16. Bill Snyder was 9-17 through his first 26 games at Kansas State, Missouri's Larry Smith was 7-19 and Iowa State's Dan McCarney was 5-21.

And Allen is ahead of predecessor Glen Mason, too. Mason was 6-20 through 26 games.

-- Andrew Hartsock's phone number is 832-7216. His e-mail address is ahartsock@ljworld.com.